If you are a government agency considering using VMware vSphere 4.0, get ready for some good news. VMware announced it has received the Common Criteria certification for vSphere 4.0 at Evaluation Assurance Level 4 (EAL4+) under the Common Criteria Evaluation and Certification Scheme (CSS). This certification covers VMware ESX 4.0, ESXi 4.0, and vCenter 4.0.

This is a big win for VMware and will enable the virtualization giant to more easily solicit government agencies to purchase or upgrade to VMware's latest hypervisor platform.

The Common Criteria is an international certification standard (ISO 15408) from North American and European governments that provides a common framework for evaluating security features and capabilities of IT security products. In effect since 1999, the security evaluation is given different EAL ratings, with EAL7+ being the highest grade assigned. However, EAL4+ is the highest assurance level that is globally recognized by all signatories under the Common Criteria Recognition Agreement (CCRA).

Common Criteria is an important certification for government and defense consumers and is often a requirement for many of their IT environments. But beyond government, the test and rating system is also very valuable to other types of consumers because it represents an objective measure of a software product's security. Having Common Criteria certification is often used to gauge whether a product should be considered for use in security-sensitive environments, such as a financial organization or the military.

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